Last night I wondered if Mal Reilly was back on the coaching staff.

One man rugby and no support play.

At least Reilly focused on a decent kick at the end of the sets.

IF the boys are playing to his game plan we're in deep trouble.

Or after to the Eastwood fiasco there isn't any decent players left to bring in.

Havent read through any of the thread but that is my taking on things. Why go for a quick fix if there is no one available to repair things.

How did we not qualify for the 96 play offs we finished 2nd behind wigan

Stones Bitter Championship 1995-96 Final Standings

Pos Team P W D L F A Pts
1 Wigan 20 18 0 2 810 316 36
2 Leeds 20 14 0 6 552 405 28
3 Halifax 20 12 1 7 456 463 25
4 St. Helens 20 12 0 8 732 508 24
5 Sheffield Eagles 20 10 0 10 482 528 20
6 Castleford 20 9 1 10 448 566 19
7 Bradford Bulls 20 8 0 12 418 476 16
8 Oldham Bears 20 8 0 12 382 535 16
9 Warrington 20 7 0 13 443 514 14
10 London Broncos 20 7 0 13 466 585 14
11 Workington Town 20 4 0 16 317 610 8

Yeah, he's on about the 96 SL1 season not the last 95/96 1st division season.

Because there was no such thing as a play off in 96

If you bothered to read his post he answered your question.

Nobody qualified for the 1995/96 Centenary Championship Play Offs or Premiership because no such competitions existed at the end of that season.

As that season was also prior to the start of SL it wasn't really part of the question I was answering.

As I said there was a Premiership competition held at the end of SL1 in 1996 (limited to a top 4 play-off, IIRC) and Leeds were a way off qualifying for that.

Forgetting the potential recruitment. If we are relying on one player (Eastwood) to make a difference to what we are seeing now, then we really do have big problems.

Who has hacked your account because you're making a great deal of sense lately.

Before the refusal of Eastwood's Visa there weren't any posts from the "experts" saying our squad wasn't good enough.

We lose a few games and suddenly its' down to squad size.

Eastwood or anybody in the right centre would've made no difference in the defeats we have suffered this year.

The squad as a whole has gone backwards in quality over the last two years - especially in the forwards. I'm not sure what the number of players we have has to do with quality. It's not dramatic but it has happened, losing Ellis and Scruton has contributed but it's the performance of the existing guys overall that's also declined. JJB, Ali, Kylie - simply are not playing as well as last year. Ali has given us fantastic service, but in the last two-three years it's been patchy with occaisional brilliance (2007 he turned the semi and the GF for me). I think this year he's showing his mileage. Ablett? He could kick on and be a top back rower - but not at the moment. Buderus is looking more like a lemon of a signing, only positive in that respect is the dire form of Diskin who's making him look better than he is. But last year we had a mass of injuries and were still able to put away better teams that beat us over the last few weeks. Now we are at "full strength" and can't put in a half decent performance and we can't score points.
In that respect you are correct, Eastwood or a right centre wouldn't make the difference. I believe the management are fully aware of the sell buy of certain players we have in the squad, the lack of anything resembling a good young forward waiting to "arrive" in the reserves and the dirth of attacking options we have in certain parts of the pitch. But I don't think they could have anticipated the innability to work a game plan, play through sets effectively, pass, tackle or create.

I said the squad wasnt good enough, I also said our Coach wasn't very good 12 months ago.

i Agree with most of your post but not the bit about Buderus.Each game he has got better and I'm sure there is is still loads to come from him.

I was just about to post the exact same thing.

Yes, but nobody listens to you because, quite frankly, you're special.